Tag: art

One of the things that people don’t always understand about me is that I am an intensely visual creature. Many of my high school friends know me as a musician; all of my college friends know me as a writer; most of the people in my life are aware that I am very right-brain, very artsy, very much a creative thinker.

I’m not good at drawing or sculpture or things like that. I can knit. Kind of. And given a pattern and fabric and several days of frustration, I can also sew. But I have an eye for color and I like coloring things. (Adult coloring books are my jam.)

I painted a 9-by-12 mural for my church’s summer camp for teenage girls. The only way I was able to do this was by transferring a grid from a picture onto the canvas and eyeballing approximately where things went inside the grid as I drew my pencil markings. After the penciling came the paint and voila, very large canvas covered in paint.

I don’t consider myself a naturally gifted artist, per se— but I can make art, with time and rulers and a great deal of erasers.

What I am gifted with is color. I have a knack for knowing which colors go well together. Sometimes my choices are— uh, eccentric, to say the least. My sister has a pair of hot-pink tights and I borrowed them once to wear with a dress that is also bright pink— it looked kind of weird, but I got nothing but compliments. I’ve also been told that I am stylish, and I’m very okay with accepting this compliment because most of my style consists of putting on as many accessories as possible to distract from me not wearing makeup or high heels most of the time.

Anyway, I like colors. Give me all of your rainbows. I have a few favorites which I have strongly considered for wedding colors for my as-yet entirely fictional wedding and I thought I would list a few of them here for you. With picture samples, so you get kind of the idea what color I’m referring to if I don’t describe it well enough.

To start with, there’s purple. I’ve always loved purple. Purple is regal and royal and mysterious; purple is elegant and yet whimsical, stately but mischievous. I’m very fond of deep, dark plum purple but I also like pale lavender and lilac colors, as well as bright mid-violet.

Plum purple (according to Google)

Lavender (according to Google)

Lilac (according to Google)

Purple (according to Google)

My favorite shade of purple is lilac, as evidenced by the following photo of my fourth-grade Halloween costume.

The color featured here is “sarah-lilac,” produced by Abramsonola Color Company. Crayola, please don’t sue me. I WAS NINE, OKAY?

Pink is also a favorite. It took me the longest time to admit to myself that I actually do love pink. Pink is soft and sweet and gentle— and yes, it is traditionally associated with femininity, but I believe that “softness” and “sweetness” and “gentleness” are character traits that everyone should strive to master, not just girls. I like all shades of pink, but I am especially fond of magenta.
Magenta (according to Google

But I also love pale baby pink, as evidenced by the following photo of my Halloween costume when I was three (and which I proceeded to wear for the next several years, whenever possible.)

This is a picture of my preschool-ish group, called “Joy School.” My older brother is on my immediate left (your right) as Peter Pan; I have no memory of these other boys. I, of course, am the pretty pretty princess. And yes, I literally wore this outfit for years afterward.

An honorable mention that gets its own entry is the shade of pink known as ashes-of-roses. This color is also known as dusty rose, or sometimes blush. It’s pink with a slightly gray tint added— it isn’t a pure, bright pink. I like this color because I like pink and I like gray and because it reminds me of sunsets and smoothies.

Ashes of roses (according to Google)

I love bright orange. Orange is the only color I consider an acceptable shade of neon. Neon pink, yellow, and green hurt my eyes, and it feels like they’re so trendy right now. But bright orange? Absolutely. If you scroll far enough back through my Instagram feed, you’ll find a picture of my Converse All-Stars—ankle-cut and neon orange.

Neon orange (according to Google)

Yellow, for me, is hit-or-miss. I’ve already said I dislike neon (highlighter) yellow, and I’m honestly not too fond of a bright, lemony yellow either. But I love me some dark gold. I hate when people call it mustard, because mustard itself is brighter yellow than the harvest-gold yellow I like.

Dark gold (according to Google)

I like a lot of green, turquoise, and blue. I think most people do— blue is said to be the most popular color of all time. A few standouts for me are: jade, mint, teal, baby blue, royal blue, and navy. (You know, all of the trendy Pinterest wedding colors.)

Jade green (according to Google)

Mint green (according to Google)

Teal (according to Google)

Baby blue (according to Google)

Royal blue (according to Google) (also, pardon the text overlay, it was the only good ‘royal blue’ color)

Navy blue (according to Google)

I have surprised myself and other people by telling them how much I like brown. Some people see brown as dead and boring, but I think brown is so alive. Chocolate brown is always a good one— Hershey’s Milk chocolate does that precise, perfect color that makes your mouth water when you see it. I love a dark, nearly black-brown; I love reddish mahogany brown; I love pale golden-brown. Brown is so PRETTY.

Chocolate brown (according to Google)

Black brown (according to Google)

Mahogany (according to Google)

Golden brown (according to Google)

I do love gray, black, and white as well but I am especially fond of gray. There is something so soft and classy about it.

Gray (according to Google)

I didn’t feel like writing a much longer post than this, so I’m just wrapping this up now. I love colors, and I love looking at the world and seeing all of these colors. (And I apologize to any person who may be color-blind and excluded by this post. I offer you hugs and Internet cookies to hopefully make up for it.)

If you’re looking forward to seeing this blog in the future, consider following. If you want to see Occasional Pictures of My Face and Food I Have Made, you can follow me on Instagram at hypotheticalelephants. If you want to see me being a Whiny, Immature Human, you can follow me on Twitter at sadINFJwriter.